Approximately 500 yards of worsted weight yarn (I used one ball of Sensations Rainbow Classic); H 8/5.00 crochet hook; Two buttons (about 1” in diameter, although you could use slightly larger buttons); Large eye needle (or something to use for attaching buttons).

Special Stitches:

There is a super awesome hat and visual tutorial (mad props for the visual tutorial using different colored yarn) of the Lattice Treble Crochet (LTC) stitch at Rheatheylia.com

LTC:YO twice (3 loops on hook); insert hook under LTC two rows down*; YO and pull through (4 loops on hook); YO and pull through 2 loops (3 loops on hook); YO and pull through 2 loops (2 loops on hook); YO twice (4 loops on hook); insert hook under LTC in front of hook two rows down; YO and pull through (5 loops on hook); YO and pull through 2 loops (4 loops on hook); YO and pull through 2 loops (3 loops on hook); YO pull through all 3 loops.

* For rows beginning with 2 sc the first LTC you insert hook under will be slightly behind your hook and two rows down. For rows beginning with 3 sc, the first LTC you insert hook under will be directly below (or just slightly in front of) your hook and two rows down. The second LTC you insert into will always be in front of hook.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

This was the first Halloween where we lived in a place that had a chance for trick-or-treaters so we obviously needed pumpkins. For weeks we had been contemplating what to carve our pumpkins as and we had settled on a Pac-Man theme. When I went to purchase squash and pumpkins, I ran across this awesome, scary, ready for Halloween Turban squash. This squash needed no carving, it already looked like the birth of an alien. Out went the plans for Pac-Man, I just picked up an array of pumpkins and squashes and figured we would see it all when the squash was sitting at home.Even though the turban squash could have just sat out on the porch without any changes, it needed to be painted for the theme. First it was painted white, making it look like a gigantic garlic.Then it was painted to resemble a one-up mushroom. It reminds me of an aqua teen hunger force interpretation of a one up mushroom.

Of course, all of the pieces for the Pac-Man theme pumpkins were easily converted into a chain chomp.And finally, the cutest pumpkin, the Bob-omb pumpkin, complete with eye cut-outs used as feet and a tinfoil covered tube as a fuse (the tinfoil had holes in it and when it was dark, the candle light shown through like sparks).Here is the whole porch scene (including a very curious cat). Unfortunately it was hard to get good pictures at night when everything was lit up. Lots of kids really like the black pumpkins, "mommy, i never seen black pumpkins," "those are cool" unfortunately, it was only a few grown ups who recognized the scene.

Friday, October 30, 2009

At the office where husband works, someone started a Halloween treat swap thingy. Basically, you get a note that says, "You have been Booed" along with a treat. Then you post the sign on your door and pay it forward to two people. When husband was booed, he requested that I crochet some treats for his pay it forward (I think everyone else gave candy). So I crocheted these creepy little eyeballs...

The pattern is loosely based on http://www.scificrafts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Crochet-Eyeball-Pattern.pdf although after row 7, I tied on all the red yarn and let it hang from the outside while I finished the eyeball part. Then I threaded the yarn onto a tapestry needle and chain-stitched the bloody nerves to the back of the eyeball. As with most of my creations lately, these were gone before I even had a chance to really look at them, so I think I will make some more for myself.

Friday, October 23, 2009

I had so much fun with the goomba mini quilt that I decided to make a Mario one. The finished piece is about 10" square. This was much more complicated because unlike the goomba, mario is not symmetrical and as you can see below, there are more tiny pieces to deal with. I also did not do as good of a job of counting and cutting and I had to cut new pieces and alter some of the strips while I was making it. Oh well, I think it was definitely worth the effort.

Friday, October 16, 2009

I have been having a lot of fun making mini-quilts lately. If I ever keep one, I will use it as a trivet to put hot stuff on. For a geek craft swap that I am hosting, I thought an 8 bit mini-quilt would be awesome. I went with a goomba because I had this fun goomba orange spiral print that seemed perfect.

Here is what a bunch of goomba pieces look like...

This is what a goomba would look like if a bob-omb exploded it to bits.

This is a freakishly tall goomba.

And finally, here is the finished goomba mini-quilt hanging on the finger hook. I am really happy with how it turned out and kind of sad to send it away although I think my swap partner will be pleased.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

It was seven o'clock on Friday night when Peregrin and I realized that we should probably bring a present to his cousin's wedding the next day. It took a little bit of brainstorming, but we came up with smittens as a perfect wedding gift. A super quick trip to the fabric store and a late night of tracing hands, sewing and trying on, and voila!!!

Smittens (all by themselves, they look a little strange).

Here we are trying them on for the camera (although the pictures came out really fuzzy and not terribly flattering to the smittens). Note the suit because taking these pictures probably was what made us late for the wedding. I now think that I will make smittens for every wedding present because it seems like the only time you can really give these as a gift.

Friday, October 2, 2009

I made this new bag for a swap on swapbot. The top is woven together with pieces of cotton with shiny gold accents from Thailand and the rest of the bag is made of this funky black woodgrain synthetic that has been sitting in a box in storage for a few years (I could never quite figure out what to make with it until now). The first picture is detail of the top and the second picture is of the entire purse.The top is woven and the strips are only sewn together around the edges. I put the top together before I even figured out what I was making. Once the top was together I realized that it would make a perfect purse flap and voila!!!

Friday, September 4, 2009

This coming Saturday, September 5th, 2009 is International Bacon Day. In honor of the celebration of such a glorious food, I am posting some recent works of bacon-art. Above is the "Breakfast Awareness Ribbon" modeled by my husband and below is the "Bacon Scarf" modeled by the blue chair. Although these treats aren't as delicious as edible bacon, they are crocheted in vegan and kosher yarn and can be enjoyed by all. For more info on Bacon Day, see http://internationalbaconday.blogspot.com/

Monday, August 31, 2009

At the beginning of the summer when my husband and I moved into our new house, I was out one day looking for new shelves at garage sales. I found a cute little bookshelf/dictionary stand that I thought would be perfect with a new coat of paint. I brought it home, cleaned it up and began painting the shelves blue and yellow and the legs that attach each shelf together bright green. When my husband came home and saw the bright green legs he commented on how they looked like warp pipes from Mario and then he commandeered my project. After giving him an ultimatum (the half finished shelves in the shed had to be finished by the end of August or I would paint them plain again), he finished hand-painting them this weekend. Now we have the best shelves ever. But I don't know if they can be used as shelves . . . So far only the two little crocheted mushrooms have been put there (I will put up a pattern for these mushrooms soon).

Details of the shelves...The warp zone is my favorite...But they are all pretty awesome......

About Me

I am always happy to entertain requests for custom items (for purchase or trade), ideas for new projects (for fun and enjoyment) or questions (about me, my crafting, techniques, the meaning of the universe). Just email me at libertunity@gmail.com :)